Don't call them hunnies
by Lil-Samuu
Summary: During game oneshot. Lloyd and Zelos have a chat by the campfire one night.


During-game one-shot. Featuring Lloyd and Zelos this time, something a bit different :) The Colette and Sheena chibis decided they wanted to take a nap :) No major spoilers, plotless nonsense as usual.

Dedication: belated (sorry!) birthday fic for Rose-Wisteria :) Sorry it's not pure Sheena and Zelos fluff, and sorry it's late. I hope you like it though.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I believe Namco own Symphonia. I just have a bunch of talkative chibis and a hutch full of plot bunnies :)

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Zelos didn't get it. He was supposed to be the one who was good with the hunnies. But today he'd been glared at and hit by Sheena even more than usual and Colette, who normally was so friendly and cheerful, had been a bit grumpy towards him. Lloyd, who was extremely naive when it came to hunnies it seemed, had practically had them eating out of his hand however. Literally in Colette's case, the little angel had happily accepted the squares of chocolate he'd offered her and then fed her. 

He knew why the two girls were in a bad mood, had been able to work it out, but attempts to make jokes about it to cheer them up had earned him an unhappy, almost cross look from Colette, which, from the blonde, was pretty bad, a slap from Sheena and even a glare from Lloyd. He'd decided it would be best to leave the two girls alone for the rest of the night at that point and had wandered to a different spot by the campfire.

Both of them were sleeping now, curled up together for extra warmth on the chilly night. They seemed fairly peaceful although occasionally one of them would grumble in their sleep, sometimes rolling over or moving the blanket around. Lloyd, however, was still awake, taking the first shift of the night watch. The Chosen stood up and walked over to the younger swordsman.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked. Lloyd shook his head and Zelos sat down beside him, looking around the sleepy, peaceful campsite for a short while before speaking again.

"OK, how'd you do it?" the redhead asked.

"Do what?" Lloyd replied, puzzled.

"Not get your head bitten off by the violent banshee today, she's in a real bad mood," Zelos clarified.

"You would be too if you had to put up with that," Lloyd frowned.

"And you're the expert now how exactly bud?" Zelos asked, snorting slightly in an amused way.

"Colette's talked about it with me. We can talk about anything you know, it's nice," Lloyd smiled fondly and lovingly at the little blonde who was cuddling a little plushie dog. He recognised that plushie and remembered well the day on which he'd given it to her.

"Lucky," Zelos said softly, thoughtfully.

"Mmm?" the younger swordsman prompted the older one to elaborate.

"Well, pretty much every time I try talking to Sheena it ends up in my beautiful features being attacked," Zelos whined.

"Maybe you should try talking to her properly," Lloyd suggested, smiling softly. It was the Chosen's turn to prompt the other speaker to explain.

"Your conversations with her tend to be, well, kinda all about one topic," the younger swordsman said.

"You have to admit she is stunningly beautiful though," the Chosen smiled.

"That's not the way you usually put it," Lloyd chuckled. "I reckon that's part of your problem you know."

"_You're_ giving _me _advice on hunnies now bud?" Zelos raised an eyebrow.

"Not hunnies, women. I really don't think Sheena appreciates being called that you know," Lloyd nodded, poking the fire with a stick a little.

"You can read her thoughts?" the older swordsman asked.

"Nope, but the look on her face when you call her that says a lot. Although I guess you're too busy getting slapped or attacked by a card or summon spirit to notice" Lloyd laughed.

"Heeeeey, shut up," Zelos mock-whined, punching Lloyd lightly on the arm.

"You asked how I managed to not get my head bitten off, I'm trying to explain, trying to help. You reward me with a bruise, nice," Lloyd stuck his tongue out at the Chosen. "If you're gonna be like that I won't talk to you about it any more."

"Aw, no, hey, bud, I didn't mean it," Zelos whined.

"You got any chocolate?" Lloyd asked.

"Somewhere in my bag, yeah," Zelos replied.

"Give me a bar and I might consider talking some more," Lloyd grinned.

The Chosen shuffled though his bag, found a bar of chocolate and passed it to Lloyd. He pulled a puzzled expression when the younger man pocketed the sweet treat instead of pulling open the wrapper and eating it so fast he seemed to inhale it.

"She'll enjoy that tomorrow," Lloyd smiled, nodding at Colette.

"You're a big soppy softie you know that?" Zelos chuckled.

"And you're a pervert," Lloyd laughed.

"I am not," Zelos protested. Lloyd gave him a sceptical look.

"I just appreciate the view when there's a beautiful hunny around," the Chosen smiled.

"There's more to women than what they look like you know," the younger swordsman rolled his eyes, stirring the fire again.

"I know, I know. I also know that the Violent Demonic Banshee's special. But that's the problem I guess, I'm so used to women acting the way the ones in Meltokio did, all fluttering eyelashes and silly giggles, and responding to that that I don't know how to act around a woman who's not like that. I was trained to talk to noble women and servants, not ninja women who are fiercely independent and pack a mean punch," Zelos smiled softly, absentmindedly rubbing his cheek.

"Try treating her like a person," Lloyd suggested.

"But she's so much more than just any old person. She's, she's…" Zelos' voice trailed off.

"She's what?" Lloyd asked.

"Nah, not going to tell you, you'll accuse me of being a softie like you. The Great Zelos is not a softie," Zelos grinned.

"Bet you you are underneath. I bet inside you somewhere you've got a warm, fuzzy, gooey centre. Mmmmm, gooey centre, like those really good chocolates," Lloyd became distracted as he thought about gooey treats, fingering the bar of chocolate in his pocket, clearly tempted to open it. Then he shook his head and moved his hand back to the ground, remembering he'd earmarked that bar as a present for Colette tomorrow.

"You and food, honestly, you're a bottomless pit you are," the older swordsman laughed.

Lloyd frowned, trying to think of a witty comeback to that. He failed and resorted to blowing a raspberry at Zelos.

"Very mature," the red head snorted.

"Hey, at least I can talk to Sheena without getting hit, burnt or frozen," the younger swordsman jeered playfully.

"But you can't beat the Great Zelos at getting the hunnies now can you?" Zelos grinned.

"Don't want to, there's only one woman who's really special to me," Lloyd smiled.

"Hey, who said the hunnies were special?" Zelos asked, letting his guard down in the light-hearted moment of friendship.

"Thought so, you don't act around them the way you act around Sheena," Lloyd nodded.

"And who says Sheena's special?" Zelos asked.

"You, about a minute ago," Lloyd giggled.

"You tricked my deepest secret out of me," Zelos said in a mock-horrified and shocked voice, snapping his fingers together.

"You should tell her, you know. Really, try talking to her about stuff other than her figure. I bet you could have a nice conversation with her if you tried," Lloyd smiled.

"Nah, she'd just assume I'd want to talk about the usual topic of conversation and slap me before I had a chance to say 'hey, nice weather we're having'," the Chosen shook his head.

"She's not THAT unreasonable. Although you'd better be a bit careful about what you choose to talk to her about at the moment. I don't think you need me to tell you your jokes didn't go down very well earlier," the younger swordsman chuckled. He turned to the fire, a thoughtful expression on his face. Then he took the chocolate bar out of his pocket and cut it in half with a knife from his bag.

"Here, give her that as an ice breaker, it might buy you some time," he grinned.

"Thanks bud," Zelos patted him on the back. Then he yawned, finally tired after what had been a very long day.

"Guess it's time I went to bed. I don't envy you, having to stay up on night watch. Although I shall share something with you that might cheer you up through the lonely, cold hours. There will never be anyone who can match the Great Zelos when it comes to hunny related skills but somehow I reckon that you might just do alright with your special hunny," he smiled, winking.

"Heeeey, I told you Sheena doesn't like being called that, I doubt Colette would either," Lloyd mock-growled at Zelos.

"You know what I mean," the red head smiled. The younger swordsman returned the smile.

"Night bud," Zelos yawned as he curled up in his sleeping bag.

"Night Zelos," Lloyd replied, smiling thoughtfully before adding quietly "and good luck."


End file.
